Heart of a Dog

I had never heard of Mikhail Bulgakov before being introduced to him by a Russian woman who was born and bred in the Soviet Union before emigrating to the U.S. She lived under the system that the revolution created and had personal experience with what went on. On the first level, the book is bizarre. A professor befriends a stray dog, takes him home and feeds him well. The dog is very appreciative (the dog does much of the talking) but the Professor has an ulterior motive. When a petty criminal dies, the Professor and his assistant remove several organs and transplant them into the dog. The dog ultimately turns into a mean, thieving, lazy but domineering man who ultimately gets appointed as chief exterminator of cats in Moscow. I leave the conclusion to your imagination. It's a quick short read well worth your time and a good bit of thought.

Mikhail Bulgakov is considered one of the Soviet Union's truly great writers. I have limited exposure to Soviet authors; I review the novel based on face value reading.An injured dog dying in the Moscow winter curses the cruel uncaring proletariat who either bedevil him or ignore his plight. Then a bourgeois gentleman feeds the dog and encourages him to follow; the distinguished professor shares his seven-room warm apartment with a male physician, a female laboratory assistant and an older female housekeeper. The professor and physician clean and bandage the dog's wounds, feed him, and restore the dog's health; the dog (now named Sharik) relishes his bourgeois new life. Then the professor and physician operate on Sharik, substituting a freshly dead human criminal's pituitary and testes for the dog's pituitary and testes. Sharik barely survives the operation; he awakens but his body and mind are changing.Sharik develops an upright posture, some hair regrows while other hair sheds giving Sharik a somewhat humanoid appearance, and Sharik begins to speak. As Sharik vocalizes the professor realizes that Sharik retains both dog and human criminal memories and attitudes, and some of these attitudes are trouble. Sharik is an unpleasant houseguest who wrecks, steals, terrorizes the household's females, and carouses all hours of the night. When the professor and physician attempt to moderate Sharik's behavior, Sharik gets a government job (controlling stray cats) and then formally complains to the local housing committee and to other Soviet bureaucracy, thus threatening the professor's bourgeois lifestyle. The professor desperately seeks a solution as the situation deteriorates.The post-revolutionary Soviet government sought to scientifically create the Socialist worker's paradise; the government had little appetite for satire or criticism. Mikhail Bukgakov wrote this novel in 1925; the Soviet government barred his work being published and this novel wasn't published until 1968 (in the West, later in Russia). The English translation is very readable and this novel is worthwhile as a reflection of its time, but I do not consider it a great novel.

It's just something about those Russians. I guess because they've had to put up with so much turmoil, for so long, historically; or it could be those long Russian winters; but for whatever reason they have produced a steady stream of excellent satirists for the past two hundred years. Refer to Nikolai Leskov's LAUGHTER AND GRIEF, for a mid 19th century examination of the phenomenon from someone who first noticed it. Leskov's narrator, Vatahvskov, states in a conversation amongst his colleagues that the feature most singular in Russian society is "its abundance of unpleasant surprises." Which brings me to Bulgakov and to HEART OF A DOG, for it is a novella full of "unpleasant surprises," both happening to and instigated by, Bulgakov's singular literary creation, Sharik (aka Mr. Sharik, aka Citizen Sharikov, aka Polygraph Polygraphovich Sharikov, commisar of cat control, etc.) Bulgakov takes an absurd situation (think of Gogol's "nose" wandering around the streets of St. Petersburg for comparison) and crafts it into a wonderful parody of the societal madhouse that was 30s Moscow under the party's intolerable decrees. His is a portrait of political correctness run amok. Citizen Shvonder, the representation of all things banal about the collectivist mentality of the era is the Bulgakov's primary target in this regard. His jealous rage at the fact that professor Phillipov is living the high life, while he and his ilk are sharing one room apartments, remains comically ineffectual. It was Bulgakov's way at getting back at all of the party appartchiks that were in fact causing him a great deal of consternation and physical hardship at the time. A reviewer who was critical of this work as being too much akin to a Chagall painting was drawing an accurate analogy. Yet, coming from a perspective in which magical realism has become an accepted literary technique, I don't consider that a drawback. It is part of the same Russian tradition. The fanciful and the grotesque have long been an integral part of Russian fiction. Bulgakov is simply one of its more famous and adept practitioners.BEK

Un libro muy interesante para los amantes de los perros

Bulgakov is a giant of world literature. If you don't know him, you need to. This book is a good place to start.

Bulgakov is a kind of unearthed god. He lived his life in misery, ticking off the years, crushed into the too-tight shoes of Bolshevism. 'Ok, I'm 30.. I haven't written anything of significance and I would like to emigrate.' They would not let him emigrate and would not allow his work to be published. By his 40th birthday he was saying the same thing. Some plays he was allowed to put on, but they were often pulled before opening night, He would then write to Stalin. Stalin would not write back, but he would then be appointed director of some theatre or theatrical arts committee. So many ups and downs. You must read his biography. A more unsatisfying life while he lived it, is unlikely to be found, but his writing is pure heaven. The oddest thing of all. His great novels; Heart of a Dog, Master and Margarita, all came to light long after his death, due to the relentless efforts of his third of fourth wife. Behind every man.. is a GREAT WOMAN!

A very entertaining book with deep social satyre

It seems it could of gone on for much longer, but very rich in humour and style. A good start into the world of mikhail, I hope to enjoy some more of his books.